Ireland

Irish band Lankum to cancel entire North American tour

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An Irish folk band previously nominated for the Mercury Prize have announced the cancellation of their US and Canada tour. 

By Pierra Wilix

Originally formed as a duo by brothers Ian and Daragh Lynch in 2003, the line-up of Lankum now also includes Cormac MacDiarmada and Radie Peat.

After touring the world, they returned to their home country and developed a deeper interest in Dublin’s trad music sessions – where they met their future bandmates.

But it was their fourth album False Lankum, which was released in 2023, that saw them take off internationally and also be nominated for the Mercury Prize.

Although they’d been due to play shows in the US and Canada soon, they’ve now revealed they’ve had to pull the plug.

In 2014 Lankum – whose music has been described as a ‘younger, darker Pogues with more astonishing power’ – released their debut album Cold Old Fire, going on to be named the best folk group at the RTA Folk Music Awards in 2018 and have seen several of their albums win the RTA Choice Music Prize Irish album of the year.

Posting a statement on Instagram they wrote: ‘Due to unforeseen circumstances we will no longer be able to travel to Canada and the US for our upcoming concerts in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver and Seattle.

‘The exact reason for this cancellation we would like to keep private, but please be assured we did our absolute best to save these dates.

We understand that many people will have already made travel plans, and we sincerely apologise for any inconvenience this causes. The health and wellbeing of our band members is our priority at this point and your support is deeply appreciated. Hopefully we get to see each other again soon.’

The band added that full refunds were also available from the point of purchase.

Responding to the news, many of their fans offered words of support.

‘Health and well-being always comes first. Take care of yourselves and we’ll be looking forward to next time,’ Gregory.

‘Take care of yourselves! I was so stoked to see you in Toronto, but health is most important,’ Isaac shared.

‘Relieved I hadn’t bought the plane tickets yet, because it’s an expensive flight, but know that I was going to fly down to Vancouver from the Yukon to see your show and gladly will again, when your health allows. Take care of yourselves,’ Nicholas added.

In 2023 Lankum had a planned performance at the TransCentury Festival in Leipzig cancelled due to their pro-Palestinian stance, which occurred just before they headlined a ‘Gig for Gaza’ event at Dublin’s 3Arena.

In a statement cancelling the gig at short notice, the festival organisers said: ‘Lankum represents a political stance that we as a venue and festival do not represent.’

When promoting the Gig for Gaza, Lankum shared: ‘Like most people of sound mind and reason around the globe, we are heartbroken and shocked to see the indiscriminate murder of children and civilians happening for the past few weeks. This, on top of decades of oppression, persecution and dehumanisation is something we can only struggle to comprehend.

‘That is why we are very proud to raise our voices in solidarity with the people of Palestine”.

‘It’s the very very least we can do.’

Source: Huge Irish band forced to cancel entire North American tour for ‘private reason’ | Metro News

The Kingston Coffeehouse: Katie Cruel

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Originally broadcast September 9, 2025, on WRIU 90.3 FM.


By Michael Stevenson, host The Kingston Coffeehouse

PLAYLIST
“Katie Cruel” (traditional) – Karen Dalton
“Bashed Out” (K. Stables) – This Is the Kit , 2015 Bashed Out
“God Loves a Drunk” (R Thompson) – Norma Waterson, 1996 

“I’m Waiting For You to Smile” – Katell Keineg, 1994 O Seasons O Castles 
“Love Will Tear Us Apart” (Ian Curtis) June Tabor & Oysterband, 2011 Ragged Kingdom
“People’s Faces” – Kae Tempest, 2019 The Book of Traps and Lessons
“Train Song” – Vashti Bunyan, r. 1966, Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind
“Anachie Gordon” (traditional) The Unthanks, 2010 Here’s the Tender Coming
“Henry Lee” (traditional) Nick Cave & PJ Harvey, 2011 Murder Ballads
“The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” (Ewan MacColl) – Offa Rex, 2017 The Queen of Hearts
“She Moved through the Fair” (traditional) – Anne Briggs, 1963 Edinburgh Folk Festival Vol. 1
“Banjo Player of Aleph One” – Gwenifer Raymond 2025 Last Night I Heard the Dog Star Bark
“Wheely Down” (R. Thompson) – Ivor Cutler, 1993 The World is a Wonderful Place
“Roundabout” – Ryley Walker, 2017 Golden Sings That Have Been Sung
“Brighter than the Blues” – Joan Shelly, 2016 Over and Even
“Three Ravens” (traditional) – Jake Xerxes Fussell, 2019 Out of Sight
“Lullaby” (from the film Wicker Man) – Magnet (Paul Giovanni) 1972
“Rivers Run Red” (Ella Oona Russell) – The New Eves, 2025 The New Eve is Rising
“Witches Reel” (traditional) – Starheid Gossip, 2015 Step Sisters
“Entertaining of a Shy Girl” – Donovan 1968 Hurdy Gurdy Man
“The Hedgehog Song”(Heron/Williamson) – Incredible String Band, 1966 The 5000 Spirits or Layers of an Onion
“Lay it Down” (G. Thomas) – Bonny Prince Billy with The Trembling Bells, 2014 New Trip On Old Wine
“Conch Shell” Katell Keineg, 1994 O Seasons O Castle
“Into My Arms” – Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, 1997 Boatman’s Call
“Place to Be” – Nick Drake, Pink Moon
“How Wild the Wind Blows” – Molly Lee, 2018 The Tides Magnificence
“The Sweetest Decline” – Beth Orton Central Reservation
“The Wagoner’s Lad” (Traditional) – Bert Jansch, 1966 Jack Orion
“Nottamun Town” (traditional)- Fairport Convention, 1969 What We Did on Our Holidays
“Masters of War” – Bob Dylan, 1963 The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan
“Needle of Death” – Bert Jansch, 1965 Bert Jansch
“Golden Brown” – The Stranglers 1982
“Meet On the Ledge” (R.Thompson) – Fairport Convention, 1969 What We Did on Our Holidays
“Anji” – Davy Graham
“Green Are Your Eyes” (b.Jansch) – Marianne Faithul, 1966 North Country Maid
“The Water” – Johnny Flynn & Laura Marling, 2010 Been Listening
“The Parting Glass” (traditional) – James Elkington 2017 Wintres Woma
“Katie Cruel” (traditional) – Agnes Obel
“Blues Run the Game” – Jackson C. Frank, 1965 Jackson C. Frank
“Home Sweet Home” (Bishop /Payne)- The King’s Singers 1993 Folk Songs of the British Isles
“A Heart Needs a Home” – Linda & Richard Thompson, 1975 Hokey Pokey
“Goodnight World” – Lisa O’Neil, 2023 All This Is Chance

The Socialism of James Joyce

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James Joyce

Joyce’s flirtation with organized socialist politics was brief, but he continued to find inspiration in socialist texts throughout his life.

By Donal Fallon | Jacobin 01.13.2021

Ulysses is a book in which everything happens and nothing happens. The story of a day in the life of a city — the Hibernian metropolis, as James Joyce saw Dublin — is a journey in a rambling flow of consciousness, where the very serious political issues of the day (the book is set on June 16, 1904) wrestle for space with the mundanities and excitement of the lives of his characters. Speaking of his appreciation for the book, Jeremy Corbyn noted how “Joyce references and richly describes what’s happening in the street. So somebody is holding forth about a big political issue and then the refuse cart goes by.” Edna O’Brien, one of Joyce’s finest biographers, has rightly maintained that “no other writer so effulgently and so ravenously recreated a city.”

Joyce is now eighty years dead, and yet his reputation as a writer whose work is difficult, even daunting to approach, remains. Anthony Burgess would insist that “If ever there was a writer for the people, Joyce was that writer,” yet others saw only pretension and inaccessibility in Joyce’s work, not least Ulysses and Finnegans Wake.

Today, Joyce is not thought of in his native city — or more broadly — as a “political writer,” in the manner that later writers like Brendan Behan or even nearer contemporaries like Seán O’Casey. Joyce’s enduring place in Dublin’s collective memory is that of a champion of the city, with the words “when I die Dublin will be written on my heart” sold in whichever form (fridge magnet, risograph print, or coffee mug) a visitor should choose to bring them home. Yet Joyce was a writer fundamentally shaped by politics — personal, national, and international — one whose work was much influenced by the political climate in which it was written and by the developing political ideas of its writer.

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